http://www.patricklipo.com The love of game design Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:42:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Last week I got a nagging feeling that I needed to catch up on some of the latest games… I’d played and enjoyed Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as some other open-world and RPG titles, but occasionally there is a "huge" title that I just plain miss. This fall ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/06/19/weapons-of-awesome-power-and-some-less-so/ It's been a pretty scattered summer for me so far...  Lots going on but some weird lulls in between.  Most recently I found out that I'm going back to my hometown of Madison, WI to attend the Games+Learning+Society Conference on July 10-11.  It's not a huge GDC-type affair, but a show in ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/06/17/conference-bound/ With all the good reasons to keep your game design lean and mean, anything you can do to streamline the feature filtering process is worth it. Continuously asking yourself “Is this for the good of the game?” is difficult, and the answers are hard to trust when you get caught ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/06/09/pillars-and-razors/ Last time we chatted, I gave a word of warning on how easy it is to get into the trap of "more". As a designer, it’s seductive… you get on a train of thought, thinking about a feature, and you want to consider all the things that would make that ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/06/04/more-part-2-justifying-the-axe/ In every game I’ve been involved with (and I'm sure most developers would agree), there’s a single teeny-tiny word that creates conflict more certainly than anything else: "More". Developers want it. Gamers want it. Reviewers want it. Executives want it. Marketing people want it. Everybody wants their game, whether the one ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/05/30/more/ It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to post… I’ve been doing a lot of writing at work lately, so it eats a bit into my “write for pleasure” time. Sometimes it can be tough to keep the balance. If you’re a long-time gamer (read: geek) like me, you ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/05/24/updating-a-titan/ Oh yeah.  I would like to personally thank the entire country of France for the greatest cover ever for a game I've worked on. Irreverent doesn't begin to describe it... If you dare, click for a disturbingly oversized version. Play La Marseillaise! Credit where credit's due...  I really have to appreciate the ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/04/20/viva-la-france/ My first Blog on This is Vegas is now running at IGN, check it out here.  The IGN series won't just be a soapbox for me, I just kicked it off...  We'll be working to get as many different Surreal folk represented as possible there, more in the spirit of ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/04/09/rival-blog-alert/ After an exploratory return to the game, we mulled last time over how "abhorrent behaviors" in Everquest became acceptable, reasonable tactics for players.  As silly as they were in the game, the players were still having fun, perhaps only at the cost of detracting from the immersion in game's fiction.  ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/03/20/legitimizing-your-mistakes/ As I mentioned last time, I've been delving back into the first Everquest after a hiatus of six years.  So far I'm at Level 12 and reliving some good times in Befallen.  As I said, there's something fun and intense about the experience that I haven't felt in the long ... http://www.patricklipo.com/2008/03/17/over-correction/